Man says straight flag flap not over
New Brunswick welder vows to continue fight
CHIPMAN, N.B. • The man behind a New Brunswick village’s straight-pride flag says he and his supporters are considering legal action or a political challenge of the municipal officials who took it down.
“There’s a lot of people angry over the flag being taken down. The same as if the gay pride people would be angry if their flag was taken down,” Glenn Bishop said in an interview on Tuesday.
“We’re not done. We’re going to regroup and see what’s next.”
Bishop, a retired welder, insisted he is not the least bit anti-gay but is simply proud to be straight, and doesn’t understand why Chipman village officials re- moved the flag after a single day.
Bishop had watched Sunday as Mayor Carson Atkinson and others gathered to raise the flag, which shows the symbols for female and male on a field of black and white stripes.
But Bishop returned the next day as it was removed in the midst of a public outcry. Comments had poured in on the village’s Facebook page from residents and neighbours criticizing the flag as harmful towards the LGBT community.
Chipman’s village council issued a statement saying the flag had been raised as a sign of support for all groups in the community, but it was removed as a result of “unintentional attention,” and based on residents’ feedback.
“This flag distraction is a lesson for us and for other rural communities such as our own,” Atkinson said in a statement. It added “no harm or hate was intended,” and that the village of 1,200 remains “an open welcoming community.”
But on Tuesday, Bishop called the flag’s removal discrimination against straight people, and said he and his supporters will meet soon to discuss next steps.
He said that they could include a court battle or perhaps a challenge at the ballot box in the next municipal election.
“One or the other or possibly both,” he said.
“It costs a lot of money to go to court. It’s a possibility, if the money comes in. And there’s no money coming in.”
Chipman had flown the rainbow LGBT flag this summer, and Bishop said he had no objections to it.
But he wanted to show his own straight pride — he conceived the flag and it was made by a friend, and they went through “the proper procedures” to get it raised by the village.
He said one intention was to signal that the whole village wasn’t gay, and to represent “95 per cent of the population.”
“The straight people built this nation ... Now we’re being told we can’t say we’re straight.”
He said he spoke to activists at the flagpole on Monday, and explained his position to them, and offered to sit down with a representative.